The European Commission stepped into a highly sensitive national issue with one of the most eurosceptic member states Thursday (30 May) when it decided to take the UK to court over its social security tests for ...

European Commission boss Jose Manuel Barroso called on EU leaders to come up with a package against youth unemployment at the June summit, promising that the EU executive would do its bit to "revive hope, especially for ...

EU companies will be required to publish information ranging from anti-corruption and bribery measures to their boardroom policies and employment practices, under new legislation unveiled by the European Commission on ...

EU austerity programmes are putting the bloc's social model under strain by isolating trade unions and employers, a report by the European Commission indicated Thursday (11 April). Launching the 300-page report on ' ...

Luxembourg tops the ranking of Europe’s wealthiest households followed by Cyprus while Germany is at the bottom, according to a survey report released by the European Central Bank on Tuesday (9 April). The survey spans ...

Austerity policies imposed in bailed-out countries like Greece and Portugal are taking a high toll on the poorest and most vulnerable in society, a study published on Thursday (14 February) by the Catholic charity ...

EU politicians are expected to avoid becoming the first to fail to agree the bloc's annual budget since 1987 after brokering a last minute deal. MEPs tentatively accepted a commission proposal that would increase the EU ...

Over recent decades, there has been a "paradigm shift" in the way disability rights are treated in the European Union with policy-makers now focussing on how to make society more inclusive of disabled people. "We've ...

Cristina Silva believes the worst is over. But she cannot be sure. As executive director of a recuperation centre for disabled people in central Portugal, Silva has seen first hand how the economic crisis in Portugal is ...

Many of Europe's capital cities ground to a halt on Wednesday (14 November) with a series of anti-austerity marches and co-ordinated strikes. The demonstrations, which amount to the biggest pan-European attack on tough ...

People in Liechtenstein are the richest in Europe, while Moldovans are 45 times poorer, a German study shows, placing Spaniards closest to the European average purchase power of around €13,000 a year. Carried out in 42 ...

Plans to re-write rules to restrict the right to strike were dropped by the European Commission on Tuesday (11 September) in the face of sustained criticism by national parliaments. Parliaments in 12 member states used ...

EU austerity measures are helping to feed racism and intolerance, according to a report by the Strasbourg-based human rights watchdog, the Council of Europe. In its annual survey out on Thursday (3 May), the council's ...

EU countries have put up a united front against Swiss quotas on immigration from former Communist member states. Foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton on Wednesday (18 April) in a statement on behalf of the Union said ...

The Danish EU presidency aims to keep talks going on an EU bill on minority rights in the services sector. But it has no faith in a breakthrough. Danish spokesman Jakob Alvi told EUobserver on Wednesday (11 January) it ...

It seems that the European Commission has just about given up on getting a progressive EU anti-discrimination law adopted. This draft law, which would ban discrimination on grounds of religion or belief, disability, age ...

Europe’s disabled people feel they are being taken seriously for the first time in Brussels after a joint meeting with all three presidents of the European Union at the same time. “It was the first time that disability ...

Fifteen years ago, both Bulgaria and Romania went through rampant inflation linked to a financial crisis. Bucharest narrowly avoided the collapse, but Sofia was less fortunate and experienced a meltdown of the sort ...

Quality of life for a disabled man in the EU capital, the fountainhead of Europe-wide laws and standards, depends more on basic human values than on legislation. Erik, a 41-year-old Dutch language teacher, became a ...

Already at the margins of society as a result of casual discrimination, disabled people are among the worst hit by the waves of austerity measures being put in place right across the European Union. Read more in ...

The Polish presidency is keeping alive work on an EU bill on access to services for minority groups in the face of antipathy from fellow countries and apathy from the European Commission. The previous college of ...

To get to the first floor of a 19-century villa in the diplomatic quarter of Bucharest, the staircase winds narrowly like a snail house and there is no elevator. Thirty-three-year old Iulian Craciun sits in the office ...

Already at the margins of society by virtue of casual discrimination, disabled people are often among the worst hit by the waves of austerity measures being put in place right across the European Union. As governments ...

In an effort to prevent the euro zone debt crisis from ever happening again, the EU has approved six tough rules to control member states' fiscal policies. EUobserver meets Dutch MEP Corien Wortmann-Kool, key-negotiator ...

After a summer of market turmoil, MEPs touched base with some of the key players in solving the Euro zone sovereign debt crisis this week, President of the Euro group Jean-Claude Juncker, Minister of Finance of Poland ...

Although the European Commission has a relatively new Roma integration strategy, the director of the European Roma Rights Centre Robert Kushen questions whether they will follow through with it and demand real action ...

The Spanish financial crisis has been dragging on since 2009 so it is no surprise that it has touched the lives of the majority of the population. In this video, locals from the East Coast of Spain open up and share ...

The European Union must double its budget if it wants to invest in ares like research and energy - this is the latest conclusion of the European Parliament's report on the financial crisis. The French Socialist MEP ...